Cole wouldn’t back off. “A man with common sense would realize that with most of the world dead, every single life is precious. Every. Single. One.” He paused, teeth clenched as frustration boiled inside of him. It was tempting to throw up his hands and walk away, but that wouldn’t help anyone. He consciously relaxed his jaw and tried again. “Cooperation is not just desired, but required for all of us to have the best chance of long-term survival. You have to listen to reason.”
“No, you listen. We’re doing just fine. We have all the food we need and a good place to sleep— we don’t need you.”
“You may think not, but my education is in epidemiology. I studied diseases and their transmission. You said you were worried about catching the virus if you mingle with other survivors, and I can address that. It’s a valid concern.”
He didn’t point out that they were all talking in close proximity without masks. “But besides myself, there are others with me who have medical training. Our goal is to get at least a clinic up and running and this area seemed like the most likely to have everything to make that possible. Isn’t ranching is a dangerous job? Accidents happen all the time. If you fight with us on this, when our clinic is up, do you think we’d be willing to help you or your men when you need it?”
Scott dropped his fists and shuffled, sending a look at Don. “We’ll find someone else to help.”
Cole laughed. “Have fun with that. Hospitals were the first and hardest hit. If you can find so much as a candy striper still alive between here and the Pacific Ocean, I’d be very surprised.”
This wasn’t going how he’d seen it in his head, but he had to keep trying. These men were key. He could feel it. From their earlier comment about knowing Amanda’s family had settled at another ranch, they were actively scouting the area. He wanted to use their knowledge to help everyone, not just allow them to keep tabs on other survivors comings and goings. It also meant they must know more about who might have survived and who hadn’t than Amanda’s group, who had secluded themselves.
“Come on, guys. We need to share ideas. Share resources. We could form a community again. Without that, what’s the point in surviving? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not ready to revert to prehistoric living conditions. Are you?” He didn’t wait for them to answer. “It may not happen in our lifetime, but if our children and grandchildren survive, and that’s a big if, then it’ll happen in their children’s lifetimes.”
Scott shrugged. “Yeah, I guess, but by then the government will have everything worked out. This is just temporary.”
He hadn’t won them over yet. Shit. “Don’t you understand? There is no government. Not anymore. Not unless we create one.”
Don shook his head and spat to the side, taking a step back. Any second, Cole feared they’d close the gate, locking him out, and worse, locking Amanda in. He should have kept his big mouth shut. His fears were nearly confirmed when Don reached for the edge of the gate, but he didn’t close it. Yet.
“Why even bother, Cole? We don’t need a government. I like being free to do what I want.”
“You mean like being free to force a family off their ranch just because you feel like it?” Stance wide, arms crossed, Cole leveled a look at Don and held it until the other man shifted his eyes. He shifted his focus to Scott. A part of his mind looked on in disbelief, wondering if he had a death wish. The other men held the weapons as he’d purposefully left his in the Jeep. And yet, here he was poking a stick in a hornet’s nest.
Tension radiated up Cole’s neck even as adrenaline flooded him and his body ramped up for a fight as he and Scott locked eyes.
Then Scott looked down, sweeping his toe through the dust and scattering a few pebbles. “It’s not like they had nowhere else to go. I know for a fact they’re living it up just a few miles away. This ranch has more water and we’ll do a better job running it.”
Sensing he held the upper hand, Cole took a step forward, his voice dropping low. “Did you not understand what I just said? You might not care about living in a state of anarchy, but I don’t want to live that way and I don’t want to raise my own child or see my grandchildren brought up where might makes right.”
He paused, noting the other men had returned and stood listening to his little speech. Sweeping a look around, including them in his next words, he stabbed a finger down towards the ground. “Right here, right now we have a chance to start over. We can’t let billions of people’s deaths mean nothing.” His voice broke slightly on the last word, and he drew a deep breath. Had the other men taken it for a sign of weakness? Well, let them. He couldn’t do this alone. He needed help.
Cole stared pointedly on the men’s rifles until they lowered them muzzle to the ground. “Here’s the reality. I spoke to someone who has seen D.C. What little government that remains only has electricity a few hours a day, and the city itself has been devastated just like every other city. There’ll be no help from the government way out here for years. Are you willing to wait that long? Can you afford to wait that long?”
The men shuffled their feet, giving each other looks, before many shook their heads.
Cole eased back, his tone quieter, but confident. “Scott…Don…and the rest of you…none of us can do this alone. We have to work together. We can do this.”
Scott and Don exchanged a look and Scott turned and surveyed his men, apparently coming to a consensus before facing Cole again. “Veteran’s Park, you say?”
“Yes. Three days from now.”
Cole looked beyond them for signs of Amanda, but she must still be in the house. Now would be a good time to leave. What if she didn’t come out? What if someone in the house made her stay?
A movement caught his eye and Amanda appeared. Cole hid a sigh of relief. A man hobbled at her side. Her father? When they got to the gate, she walked right past Scott and Don without a second look, hanging onto her father’s arm and helping him into the Jeep.
“Hey! Where are you going, Will?”
“With my daughter. Did you actually think I’d choose you over her? You shot me!” He climbed in the back seat driver’s side door.
Cole walked backwards to the passenger side door. “Veteran’s Park. Three days from now. Five p.m.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Amanda wheeled the Jeep around and threw up gravel as she peeled away, the force of her acceleration pinning Cole to the back of his seat for a few seconds.
“I can’t believe you still invited him to join…to join whatever it is you have planned!” Amanda shot Cole a venomous look.
“Yeah—who the hell are you and who made you in charge?” Will added from the backseat.
“I’m not in charge. If you all want to be on your own, my family will leave. There’s a lot of space out here. We never have to see each other again.” Cole angled against the back of the seat, one shoulder pressed hard against the frame of the car as he leaned his elbow on the window sill. He stared out the window. What had he been thinking? These people barely knew him and he didn’t know this area.
They rode in silence for a couple of miles, then Will said, “Much obliged that you helped Amanda come to get me.”
“I didn’t do anything. I just rode along.”
“All the same, I’m glad she wasn’t alone and that she didn’t have the twins with her. They would have started a feud for sure.”
“I could have done it on my own, Dad.”
Cole met Will’s eyes in the rearview mirror. The older man gave his head a slight shake. “You would have tried, sweetheart I know, but those men wouldn’t have let you skedaddle out of there if this fellow hadn’t been with you.”
“I’m not so sure, Will. Your daughter confronted us head on yesterday and now here we are riding together. I think Amanda is a lot stronger than you give her credit for.”
Amanda sent him a look that might have been a thank you, but she said, “Whatever. You’re free, Dad. That’s the important thing. Are you okay?”
“
It wasn’t bad. The shot went clean through. Don patched me up.”
“Does he have medical training?” Cole was torn between hoping he did because the greatest resource they had lost was the vast wealth of human knowledge and every scrap of medical experience would be helpful, but he also couldn’t help wishing Don didn’t have training so that group would be more likely to join the community Cole was striving to bring together. Their threat of finding someone else hung over his head.
“I don’t know. Maybe a little. There wasn’t much to do but wash it and throw a bandage on it. I could have done it myself if I could have reached the wound, but I got hit right in the left cheek.”
Cole whipped his head around to look the man in the face, noted that half of his face wasn’t blown away, then burst into laughter when Will grinned at his surprise. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing, but—”
“Yeah, I know. The guys there were ribbing me too.”
“I’m glad you find it so amusing that my dad was shot in the ass. He could have died. He could have bled to death or had the wound become infected.” Amanda cast Cole a look that conflicted with her tone. The corners of her eyes crinkled as her mouth turned up at the corners.
“My apologies, Amanda, and to you too, Will.” Cole chuckled one more time then said, “Look, Amanda, what I would like to do is canvas the area and find out who is living in the vicinity. Say, a twenty mile radius. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Any ideas of the best way to do it?”
She pursed her lips. “We checked the fuel tank at the ranch we’re staying at and there’s still plenty but it’s diesel so we’ll have to look for diesel powered vehicles other than tractors.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Cole figured they’d be able to find them even at some car dealerships—and with luck, they could even fill up the vehicles with diesel right at the dealership and go from there.
They reached the ranch and Amanda stopped. Cole jumped out and rounded the Jeep to help Will out, but Amanda beat him to it. Before the dust had even settled, the twins were there too, and other people Cole hadn’t yet met.
“Cole? How did it go?”
He turned at Elly’s voice, unable to hold back a smile at her appearance. In this warmth, she’d shed her bulky coats and sweaters they’d worn for most of the trip and in a plain T-shirt and black leggings, her pregnancy showed. Her hair curled around her face and when she came close, he smelled a light coconut scent emanating from it.
“You smell good enough to eat.” He pulled her close, burying his face against her.
Laughing, she eased away. “I’m not sure whether to be pleased at the compliment or worried I smelled like a goat before.”
“Be pleased. That’s how I meant it.” Cole grinned. “And to answer your question, it went okay. A bit of tension, but I think they’ll be at the meeting.”
“What meeting?”
Cole told what he had planned.
“Do you think we have time to do that? We have to find a place of our own to live, get some kind of crops in, after we learn what grows here and planting seasons, find supplies for our immediate needs, and god only knows what else.”
“I know, and I understand, but I think if we get to know survivors in the area, we can save a lot of time by learning what’s available and get answers to all of your other questions.”
She put her arm around his waist as they walked back to the house. “Good point. How are we going to find other survivors?”
“That’s the biggest question of all.” Cole entered the house, shivering at the blast of air conditioning. It felt good, but unexpected. He knew it had been on last night when he heard the fan blowing, but when he’d entered the house last night, the air outside had been cool and it hadn’t been a shock. The second surprise was the tantalizing aroma of baking bread and something else he couldn’t place.
“What you guys been doing?” Cole moved to the sink and got a glass of cold water, marveling at the ease of it and vowing to never take pure running water for granted again. After guzzling most of it, he paused. If most people were dead? Who was making sure the water was pure? He peered at what was left in the glass.
“What’s wrong?” Elly had a glass of water also, and started examining her own.
“I was just wondering how clean this water was.”
“Ah. Well, it’s okay. I wondered the same thing and we figured out it’s well water. It should be fine.”
It tasted good and he finished it and filled another. After weeks of rationing water while driving, it felt great to slake his thirst.
“While you’ve been gone, Travis and I got the chickens and chicks settled in the hen house. The horses will have clean stalls to come back to after Jake and Hunter return from scoping out the land. The goats are happily cavorting in the pasture.”
“Wow, you guys did a lot!”
“Yep. After all of that, I had to shower, so that’s why I smell so good. You wouldn’t have come near me an hour ago.”
Cole laughed. “And everyone else?”
“Piper has been baking up a storm, but we’re almost out of flour. I think she went to find Amanda’s sister to see if there’s any more around so she can bake something for them. Sophie has been washing clothes for everyone. It’s a much easier task with a working washer and dryer although I think she hung some things out on a line. In this desert air, they dry faster than a machine can do it.”
“Are you hungry?” Elly opened a cupboard and pulled out a loaf of bread. The aroma wafted to him. It must have been one of the fresh loaves. His mouth watered. Piper was a great baker, but conditions for perfect baking hadn’t existed since the virus so to see an evenly browned loaf of bread, golden on top and darkening to rich brown near the bottom made him want to devour the whole thing. He made do with a thick slice slathered in strawberry jam. “Where did the jam come from?” It was deliciously tart.
“Smuckers.”
Cole laughed. “I meant, how did you come by it?”
“It was here already and Sandy said we could have some.”
After devouring the bread, Cole left Elly to help plant a garden. The ranch had a large garden already started from Amanda’s group but since they’d only been there a few days themselves, there was a lot of work to do.
He found Amanda talking to her brother, Derek out by the horse corral. “Hi Derek, Amanda. Do either of you know if my son, Hunter, has returned from his ride yet?”
“No, the stalls are still empty, so I guess not.” Derek pointed to the two empty stalls he guessed had been designated for Red and Princess. There were no other horses in the other empty stalls.
Cole glanced at the stalls, unused to seeing this particular type of stable. He guessed it was open to allow more air flow in this climate and there would be no need to protect against blizzards. “You don’t have any other horses?”
“Not here…back home we do.” Derek scowled at his sister. “I wanted to go steal them back last night, but then you guys came and ruined everything.”
“Derek!” Amanda shook her head. “I’m sorry for my brother’s outburst. Apologize, Derek.”
“You don’t have to be sorry for me. You’re not Mom and I don’t have to do what you say.”
“There’s no apology necessary. I understand Derek’s anger, but unfortunately, your horses are under locked armed guards right now. I counted at least seven men there, plus whoever your sister saw in the house when she rescued your dad.”
Derek’s eyes widened. “You rescued Dad?”
“That’s what I came out to tell you before you started mouthing off to me. He at the house in the big bedroom in the back.”
“Is he okay?”
“Yeah. He will be, just don’t bounce on the bed. He’s a little sensitive on his backside.”
Derek grinned. “I’m going to go find Daniel and tell him.” He tore off in the direction of one of the other buildings.
“I take it Daniel is the other twin?”
Ama
nda nodded, preoccupied. “Derek’s taking our mom’s death the hardest. I don’t know what to do with him anymore.” She sighed. “Anyway, is there something you wanted?”
Cole nodded. “You mentioned a couple of guys from Nellis. Are they around here now?”
She shuffled her feet and rested her arms on the top rail of the corral. “Um, well, see…there are a couple of guys, but they aren’t actually with us. I mean, they come and go in the area. They helped us with the cattle last fall but they don’t come too close to anyone. They just ride in, drop off food now and then, and leave.”
Cole digested that. He was disappointed they weren’t here, but they would be exactly the kind of guys who could tell him what was going on and where the survivors were located.
“Any chance you might know where they stay?”
Amanda shrugged. “I asked them once, and they said mostly empty bunk houses. A lot of these ranches are no longer real working ranches. Some are more vacations spots for tourists. The bunkhouses have been abandoned as not luxurious enough for guests, so cabins are built.”
“I imagine the guys think the bunkhouses are the safest.” He thought about it and shrugged. “They’d probably be right.”
Cole asked Amanda knew where any were, and she waved for Cole to follow her to the house. “I found a telephone book in a drawer in here. I can show you on the street map inside.”
For the next half hour, he compiled a list of ranches culled the old fashioned way by looking through the Yellow Pages. Amanda had gone back to tend to her father and everyone seemed to be out doing chores.
“What are you doing?” Elly entered the kitchen from a hallway, leaning sideways from the weight of a full bucket in one hand and clenching a mop in the other.
“What in the world have you been doing?” He jumped up and took the full bucket from her and poured it down the sink.
“I was mopping the floors. They were filthy with dust.”
“You shouldn’t be doing all that hard work. You’re six months pregnant.”
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